Designs on Our World; Cars, clothes and yes, even toilet bowls, are all made better (or should be) through smarter design.(Brief Article)

Five men recognized as design leaders headlined AutoWeek's eighth annual Design Forum held in conjunction with the North American Internation-al Auto Show. The forum, staged during press preview week, saw a 15 percent increase in attendance over last year, attracting more than 600 members of the design community, including students, educators and industry representatives.

Designers described how they bring things to life, from the lowbrow (toilets, bras) to the highbrow (outdoor wear, automobiles, watches and jet interiors). Topics ranged from design currents and processes to the theoretical: ``Fashion and Trends in Design,'' ``The Design Genesis of the PT Cruiser'' and ``Super Humanism.''

Imre Molnar, who just recently left his job as Patagonia's director of design, talked about the tenets of the company's 140-page design manual. At Patagonia, a maker of high-end ski and mountaineering apparel, perfection in design is achieved not when there's nothing left to add to a garment but when there's nothing left to take away. Another guiding principle for Pata-gonia designers is ``experience marketing.'' Time, Molnar explained, is the new currency. He illustrated his comments with a recent cartoon from The New Yorker, wherein a group of trendsetters proclaim, ``We were into things; now we're into experiences.''

Bryan Nesbitt, senior product designer for DaimlerChrysler responsible for the PT Cruiser, talked about emotion as an important element in automotive design. A product's success depends on creating and evoking emotion in the design, he said. According to Nesbitt, his inspiration for the exterior of the North American Car of the Year was the extroverted, hardheaded little pug, hence the Cruiser's bulging fenders and ``street-smart'' attitude.

The Ford 021C unveiled at the Tokyo Motor Show in 1999 is but one project in Marc Newson's eclectic portfolio. Newson has worked on watches, restaurant furniture and a recording studio, among other things. His goal with the interior of the 021C concept car was to design something ``incredibly clean,'' he said. He tried to get away from a car's ``ugly intersection of elements,'' to pare down as much as possible the ...